Personal Archaeology: Infinizine, part 2
“What's past is prologue.” ― William Shakespeare, The Tempest
There are no voiceovers for Personal Archaeology exhibits. I don’t think it’s correct to impose my current voice on my past words, or vice versa—I’m a different person now, even if I am also the same.
This artifact was created c. 2007.
Read my introduction to the Personal Archaeology series for paid subscribers here:
Personal Archaeology: Infinizine, part 2
This is the second part of a multi-part series showcasing a ‘zine I made c. 2007, when I was 17 years old. I called it Infinizine. It had only one issue and was never distributed—I never even took it to Kinkos. But, as you will see, I’ve been running on the same hamster wheel for a long time.
In many ways, Juxtaposition is, now, what I couldn’t make Infinizine be, then.
Editorial note: Infinizine was my own personal creative endeavor but I solicited art-work and a couple poems from friends with whom I no longer have any contact. I don’t feel right posting those sections without permission or credit, so I will black out any content that was not created by me, except for the cover photo, which I found on the 2007 internet.
Transcript: The Questions
Why is it so much easier nowadays for people to believe that something came from nothing than it is to believe that something always existed? Even in science…with that one law that states that matter can be neither created nor destroyed…even there, what’s the most popular theory for the beginning of the universe? The Big Bang Theory. Something from nothing. Why is that so much easier to grasp than infinity? Even for me.
Is the universe really infinite? How do we know? We just don’t know for sure that it DOES end. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that it DOESN’T. How do we know that it’s infinite?
And if it does have a boundary, with that assumption comes the additional question of what’s outside that boundary? Nothing? Another universe? How many other universes? All roads lead back to infinity. Nothing is an infinite answer…infinite absence. Zero and infinity are equally undefinable. And if there are more universes, how many? And what’s beyond THEIR boundaries? More universes? Infinity.
How long does time last? How long is forever? How long has time been in existence? Longer than the word for time? Longer than modern humans? Longer than the world? Longer than the universe itself? Does time need something to affect in order to exist? Does it go hand in hand with matter and when one ends so does the other? How long into the future will time continue to exist? How will we know when it doesn’t anymore? Will life continue? Does motion require time? Does thought? Do dreams?
I think dreams are the only things that could possibly transcend time. Like in [the movie] Waking Life. A fantastically intricate dream that seems to last for hours could only take one minute of actual time. Could dreams be another dimension, like length and depth and width and time? Could dreams be time itself? But maybe they can’t actually transcend time because despite the Waking Life thing, it still requires time, no matter how imperceptible an amount, to transmit the brainwaves that make dreams possible.
What is the definition of infinity? Does it mean having no boundaries at all? Does it mean having no beginning AND no end? Could it mean having a beginning but not an end? Or an end but no beginning? Like a spiral…we see those as spiraling into infinity, right? Like the spiral itself is infinite. You can conceivably put your pencil on a piece of paper and start drawing a spiral and keep drawing it forever. But it had a beginning. Is it still infinite?
Thank You for Being. Here.
I hope you found some resonance with this Personal Archaeology exhibit. The complete Infinizine series will be freely available to all subscribers—but, as a thank-you to anyone choosing to place an early bet on Juxtaposition’s success, the price to upgrade will be at its lowest during this limited time.
Use the button below to upgrade your subscription for just $3.33/month or $33.33/year1 any time before I release Infinizine Part 3 in a couple weeks. That will be your price forever, as long as you don’t cancel.
Each subsequent Infinizine exhibit will see those numerals count upwards2 until reaching $7.77/month or $77.77/year, which will be the final price.
Will You think about it? You have some time to decide.
If You’d rather stay on a free subscription for now, I won’t blame You at all. You’ll still receive all of my best content—but I sure would appreciate it if You’d take a moment to share Juxtaposition with someone in Your life who might appreciate it.
And as always, You can be read by me via email to juxtaposition@substack.com. I may not respond, but take a look at the “Commun(icat)ion” section of the About Page to find out why You should definitely still write to me.
Substack actually won’t let me set a price this low, so I had to add a percentage discount with a lot of decimal places and it’ll probably force it to round. It might end up being $3.34/month or $33.40/year, which is less satisfying but fine.
Or as close as I can get using percentage discounts, ha.